70s

45 years ago today, jazz saxophonist Eddie Harris recorded an album which, based on its cover, could well have been subsidized by Sunkist. We don’t remember seeing the company’s name anywhere in the thank-you section, but if you’ve got some better explanation for artwork features a sax player with an orange for a head standing on a beach with oranges in front of him, we’re all ears.

What’s that? You say it probably has something to do with the fact that Come On Down! was recorded in Miami? Well, sure, that could have something to do with it. In fact, you’re probably right. That actually makes a lot more sense. (Note to self: remove Sunkist conspiracy theory from Come On Down! Wikipedia page ASAP.)

It was released forty years ago this week and I didn't even know it came out.

I was living in Sandy, Utah and there was only one rock station in Salt Lake and they didn't play the new stuff and I was over Zeppelin anyway.

That's right, I was burned out, couldn't hear "D'yer Mak'er" one more time. They're rewriting history and extolling the virtues of "Houses Of The Holy" but the truth is despite the hits it was a bit of a disappointment, certainly artistically, it was safe whereas everything before it was unexpected with rough edges that pushed the envelope. It was like the band was on a premature victory lap.

This week, we’ve got a plethora of albums getting the 180-gram vinyl treatment…probably. Once you get into double digits, you’re safe in calling it a plethora, right? Because we’re talking about 10 albums here, and that certainly seems like it should be plethora-worthy, even if there are only two artists represented within those 10 albums.

If you’re an American music fan whose only frame of reference to the name “Dr. Feelgood” is that of a 1989 Motley Crüe album…well, actually, that’s not too surprising, given that it’s the Crüe’s best-selling album by a pretty wide margin. In fact, it’s gone platinum six times over at this point, which means that it’s sold so many more copies in the U.S. than the combined discography of the band called Dr. Feelgood has sold on these shores that we’re not even going to bother to do the math, because it would just make us sad.

For the record, though, the band called Dr. Feelgood was formed in 1971, released their first single (“Roxette”) in ’74, and issued their debut album, Down by the Jetty, the following year. They were known as one of the defining bands in the so-called “pub rock” movement in the UK, and they could bash out some seriously bad-ass British R&B back in the day.

They’ve posed the query on multiple occasions in the past, but today we can comfortably respond Chicago’s oft-asked question, “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” Yes, we do: it’s time to pick up a copy of Chicago XXXIV: Live in ’75.

Yes, we know, it’s reprehensible behavior for a record label to offer a self-promoting answer like that, and we apologize wholeheartedly. And now that we’ve done so, we’ll go ahead and tell you a little bit more about this release.

If it sounds familiar to you, then either you’re a diehard Chicago fan or you’ve just got a good memory, but this is not the first time we’ve released this album, which was recorded during the band’s three-night residency at the Capital Centre in Largo, Maryland from June 24 through June 26, 1975. Indeed, Live in ’75 was initially issued via our Rhino Handmade imprint back in 2011, and – as you might expect of an album by a band with as obsessive a fanbase as Chicago – it sold like hotcakes…and when Rhino Handmade items sell like hotcakes, that unfortunately means that they promptly go out of print, because they’re limited-edition releases to begin with - there are just a FEW of the first edition left here.

The Led Zeppelin reissue campaign continues in 2015, turning the spotlight on the double album Physical Graffiti. The deluxe edition of the group’s sixth studio album arrives 40 years to the day after the original debuted on February 24, 1975. As with the previous deluxe editions, Physical Graffiti has been newly remastered by guitarist and producer Jimmy Page and is accompanied by a disc of companion audio comprising previously unreleased music related to the original release.

Led Zeppelin arrived in Australia in 1972 for their first and only tour of Australasia – starting on February 16th in Perth and concluding on the 29th in Brisbane – playing exclusively open air venues. The tour was notable for the fact that midway through, Jimmy Page shaved his beard off – it was never to be seen again for the rest of the band’s career. Enjoy the setlist from their Australian debut here.

The first glimmer of HBO, the electronic majesty that is Pong, the commencement of M.A.S.H.’s media dominance, and pioneering feminist periodical Ms. magazine all arrived on the scene in 1972. I can’t believe anyone had time for music.